9. Few minds are effectually secured against the attacks of flattery. It is a poison the more fatal, as it seizes human nature in its weakest part. In youth, when the passions are in full vigor, and the judgment feeble, female minds are peculiarly liable to be corrupted, by the contagious influence of pretty civilities and affected admiration.

10. With whatever scruples they may at first listen to the praises that are bestowed on their real or pretended charms, a constant strain of flattering addresses, accompanied with obsequious complaisance, seldom fails of giving them too high an opinion of themselves. They are insensibly led to believe, that they are possessed of virtues to which they are really strangers.

11. This belief satisfies them, without attempting any further improvement; and makes them to depend, for reputation in life, on good qualities, the fancied existence of which begins and ends with the falsehood of customary compliments.

12. Such ladies, before marriage, are usually vain, pert, affected and silly; and after marriage, haughty, disappointed and peevish. The most perfect beauty must fade, and cease to command admiration; but in most instances, the nuptial hour puts a period to that excess of flattering attention, which is the happiness of giddy females. The longest term of admiration must be short: that which depends solely on personal attractions is often momentary.

13. The more flattery is bestowed on young ladies, the less, in general, are they solicitous to acquire virtues which will insure respect, when admiration shall cease. The more they are praised in youth, the more they expect it in advanced life, when they have less charms to command it. Thus the excessive complaisance of admirers, which is extremely pleasing at sixteen, proves at forty, a source of mortification and discontent.

14. I would by no means insinuate, that young ladies ought to be kept total strangers to company, and to rational professions of esteem. It is in company only, that they can acquaint themselves with mankind, acquire an easy address, and learn numberless little decorums, which are essential, and cannot be taught by precept. Without these, a woman will sometimes deviate from that dignity and propriety of conduct, which in any situation, will secure the good-will of her friends, and prevent the blushes of her husband.

15. A fondness for company and amusement, is blamable only when it is indulged to excess, and permitted to absorb more important concerns. Nor is some degree of flattery always dangerous or useless. The good opinion of mankind we are all desirous to obtain; and to know that we possess it, often makes us ambitious to deserve it.

16. No passion is given to us in vain; the best ends are some

times effected by the worst means; and even female vanity, properly managed, may prompt to the most meritorious actions. I should pay Emilia but a very ill compliment, to ascribe her virtues to her local situation; for no person can claim, as a virtue, what she has been in no danger of losing.

17. But there is no retirement beyond the reach of temptation; and the whole tenor of her conduct proves, that her unblemished morals and uniform delicacy, proceed from better principles than necessity or accident.

18. She is loved and flattered, but she is not vain; her company is universally coveted, and yet she has no airs of haughtiness and disdain.

19. Her cheerfulness in company shows that she has a relish for society; her contentment at home, and attention to domestic concerns, are early specimens of her happy disposition; and her decent, unaffected abhorrence of every species of licentious behavior, evinces, beyond suspicion, that the innocence of her heart is equal to the charms of her person.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

JULIANA, A REAL CHARACTER.

1. Juliana is one of those rare women, whose personal attractions have no rivals, but the sweetness of her temper and the delicacy of her sentiments. An elegant person, regular features, a fine complexion, a lively, expressive countenance, an easy address, and those blushes of modesty, that soften the soul of the beholder; these are the native beauties, which render her the object of universal admiration.

2. But when we converse with her, and hear the melting expressions of unaffected sensibility and virtue that flow from her tongue, her personal charms receive new luster, and irresistibly engage the affections of her acquaintances.

3. Sensible that the great source of all happiness is purity of morals, and an easy conscience, Juliana pays constant and sincere attention to the duties of religion. She abhors the infamous but fashionable vice of deriding the sacred institutions of religion.

4. She considers a lady without virtue as a monster on earth; and every accomplishment, without morals, as polite deception. She is neither a hypocrite nor an enthusiast; on the contrary, she mingles such cheerfulness with the religious duties of life, that even her piety carries with it a charm, which insensibly allures the profligate from the arms of vice.

5. Not only the general tenor of her life, but in particular her behavior in church, evinces the reality of her religion. She

esteems it not only criminal in a high degree, but extremely unpolite, to behave with levity in a place consecrated to the solemn purpose of devotion.

6. She cannot believe that any person, who is solicitous to treat all mankind with civility, can laugh in the temple of Jehovah, and treat their great benefactor with heedless neglect.

7. In polite life, the manners of Juliana are peculiarly engaging. To her superiors, she shows the utmost deference and respect. To her equals, the most modest complaisance and civility; while persons of every rank experience her kindness and affability.

8. By this conduct, she secures the love and friendship of all degrees. No person can despise her, for she does nothing that is ridiculous; she cannot be hated, for she does injury to none; and even the malevolent whispers of envy are silenced, by her modest deportment and generous condescension.

9. Her conversation is lively and sentimental; free from false wit, frivolous minuteness, and affectation of learning. Although her discourse is always under the direction of prudence, yet it appears unstudied; for her good sense always furnishes her with thoughts suited to the subject, and the purity of her mind renders any caution in expressing them, almost unnecessary.

10. She will not lead the conversation; much less can she stun the ears of company with perpetual chat, to interrupt the discourse of others. But when occasion offers, she acquits herself with ease and grace, without the airs of pertness, or the confusion of bashfulness.

11. But if the conversation happens to turn upon the foibles of either sex, Juliana discovers her goodness by silence, or by inventing palliations. She detests every species of slander.

12. She is sensible, that to publish and aggravate human errors, is not the way to correct them; and reformation, rather than infamy, is the wish and the study of her life. Her own amiable example, is the severest of all satires upon the faults and the follies of her sex, and goes farther in discountenancing both, than all the censures of malicious detraction.

13. Although Juliana possesses every accomplishment that can command esteem and admiration; yet she has neither vanity nor ostentation. Her merit is easily discovered, without show and parade.

14. She considers, that haughtiness and contempt of others, always proceed from meanness; that true greatness is ever accessible; and that self-commendation and blustering pretensions, are but the glittering decorations of empty heads and trifling hearts.

15. However strong may be her desire of useful information, or however lively her curiosity, yet she restrains these passions

within the bounds of prudence and good-breeding. She deems it impertinent to the highest degree, to be prying into the concerns of other people; much more impertinent and criminal does she deem it, to indulge an officious inquisitiveness, for the sake of gratifying private spleen, in the propagation of unfavorable truths.

16. So exceedingly delicate is she in her treatment of her fellow-creatures, that she will not read a paper, nor hear a whisper, which a person does not wish to have known, even when she is in no danger of detection.

17. The same delicate attention to the feelings of others, regulates her conduct in company. She would not, for the price of her reputation, be found laughing or whispering with one in the company. All nods, grimaces, sly looks, and halfspeeches, the cause of which is not known, are carefully avoided by her, and reprobated as the hight of ill-breeding, and the grossest insult to the company.

18. Whenever this happens between two persons, the rest of the company have a just right to consider themselves the objects of their ridicule. But it is a maxim of Juliana, that such conduct is a breach of politeness, which no oddities or mistakes that happen in public company, can excuse or palliate.

19. It is very common for persons who are destitute of certain accomplishments which they admire in other people, to endeavor to imitate them. This is the source of affectation, a fault that infallibly exposes a person to ridicule. But the ornaments of the heart, the dress and the manners of Juliana, are equally easy and natural.

20. She need not assume the appearance of good qualities, which she possesses in reality; nature has given too many beauties to her person, to require the studied embellishments of fashion; and such are the ease and gracefulness of her behavior, that any attempt to improve them would lessen the dignity of her manners.

21. She is equally a stranger to that supercilious importance which affects to despise the small, but necessary, concerns of life; and that squeamish, false delicacy which is wounded with every trifle.

22. She will not neglect a servant in sickness, because of the meanness of his employment; she will not abuse an animal, for her own pleasure and amusement; nor will she go into fits at the distress of a favorite cat.

23. Her gentle soul is never disturbed with discontent, envy, or resentment,-those turbulent passions which so often destroy the peace of society as well as of individuals. Her native firmness and serenity of mind forbid the intrusion of violent emo

tions; at the same time, her heart, susceptible and kind, is the soft residence of every virtuous affection.

24. She sustains the unavoidable shocks of adversity, with a calmness that indicates the superiority of her soul; and with the smile of joy, or tear of tenderness, she participates the pleasures or the sorrows of a friend.

25. But the discretion and generosity of Juliana are particularly distinguished, by the number and sincerity of her attachments. Her friendships are few, but they are founded on the principles of benevolence and fidelity. Such confidence do her sincerity, her constancy and her faithfulness inspire, that her friends commit to her breast their most private concerns, without suspicion.

26. It is her favorite maxim, that a necessity of exacting promises of secrecy, is a burlesque upon every pretension to friendship. Such is the character of the young, the amiable Juliana.

CHAPTER XXXV.

RULES FOR BEHAVIOR.

1. Never let your mind be absent in company. Command and direct your attention to the present object, and let distant objects be banished from the mind. There is time enough for every thing in the course of the day, if you do but one thing at once; but there is not time enough in the year, if you will do two things at a time.

2. Never attempt to tell a story with which you are not well acquainted; nor fatigue your hearers with relating little trifling circumstances. Do not interrupt the thread of discourse with a thousand hems, and by repeating often, says he, and said I. Relate the principal points with clearness and precision, and you will be heard with pleasure.

3. There is a difference between modesty and bashfulness. Modesty is the characteristic of an amiable mind; bashfulness discovers a degree of meanness. Nothing sinks a young man into low company so surely as bashfulness.

4. If he thinks he shall not please, he most surely will not. Vice and ignorance are the only things we ought to be ashamed of; while we keep clear of them, we may venture any where without fear or concern.

5. Frequent good company,-copy their manners,-imitate their virtues and accomplishments.

6. Be not very free in your remarks upon characters. There may be, in all companies, more wrong heads than right ones; more people who will deserve, than who will bear censure.